7 Key Changes in the 2020 Updated Version of the Scrum Guide
2020 Updates to the Scrum Guide: 7 Key Changes, and Why There's No Impact to the Award-Winning Book Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
24 November 2020
Agile Workflows
Countless organizations and resources are vanguards of agile including Scrum. Many take guidance from the Scrum Guide, which is periodically revised. An updated version was released on November 18, 2020. This article highlights the key changes in the Scrum Guide. And it covers what impact — if any — those updates have on the award-winning publication, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions.
The update to the Scrum Guide includes seven key changes. They are:
- The update is less prescriptive. For example, it removed the implied requirement of questions during the Daily Scrum.
- Before, the Scrum Team was comprised of the Development Team (the people doing the work), Scrum Master, and Product Owner. Now, the Scrum Team is composed of developers (the people doing the work), the Scrum Master, and the Product Owner.
- The update introduces the Product Goal.
- More information on the Definition of Done, and the Sprint Goal. (The Product Goal is covered above.)
- Before, the Development Team was referred to as self-organizing. The update uses the term self-managing and it notes that developers should choose who, how, and what to work on.
- “Why?” was added to the sprint planning topics. So, there are now three: what, how, and why.
- Unnecessarily complex information was removed.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions notes: “This guide incorporates the values and principles of agile along with information on typical successful Scrum implementations and best practices.” With a bibliography referencing 116 sources, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions was deliberately based on a large and diverse range of sources for the better. Here's just one example among many. While the Scrum Guide was silent on velocity, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions covers the topic: “For example, velocity — the most popular metrics — is not used by some people. However, this guide covers velocity and other leading practices.”
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is definitively not a restatement of a solitary source such as the Scrum Guide. Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions was thoughtfully designed to be “a refreshingly clear and easy to follow guide” based on typical successful implementations and best practices from a multitude of sources.
So, what is the impact — if any — of changes to the Scrum Guide on Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions? That’s covered next. The scale of 0-10 is used, where 0 represents no impact and 10 indicates a significant impact.
Item 1: Less Prescriptive
- Scrum Guide: The update to the Scrum Guide is less prescriptive. For example, it removed the implied requirement of questions during the Daily Scrum.
- Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions: The book was already non-prescriptive. While it is centered on leading practices, it notes: “Every aspect does not need to be followed to the letter. Just as a value of agile is ‘individuals and interactions over processes and tools’ and a principle is ‘inspect and adapt,’ whatever approach you decide to use should be adjusted as appropriate to your unique circumstances.” That’s just one example.
- Impact: 0.
Item 2: The Team
- Scrum Guide: Before, the Scrum Team was comprised of the Development Team (the people doing the work), Scrum Master, and Product Owner. Now, the Scrum Team is comprised of developers (the people doing the work), the Scrum Master, and the Product Owner. Simply put, “Development Team” was changed to “developers.”
- Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions: This label change should not impact how a Scrum Team works together. (Note: while the change may have been an attempt to simplify matters, calling them something other than developers may have been even better. In Scrum, developers are defined as those who do the work. However, for many people, a technology developer/engineer immediately comes to mind.)
- Impact: Between 0 and 1.
Item 3: Product Goal
- Scrum Guide: The update introduces the Product Goal.
- Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions: The book already covers the Product Goal.
- Impact: 0.
Item 4: Definition of Done, and the Sprint Goal
- Scrum Guide: More information on the Definition of Done, and the Sprint Goal. (The Product Goal is covered above.)
- Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions: The book already suitably covers the Definition of Done (including seven examples, and more) and the Sprint Goal.
- Impact: 0.
Item 5: Self-Managing
- Scrum Guide: Before, the Development Team was referred to as self-organizing. The update uses the term “self-managing” and it notes that developers should choose who, how, and what to work on.
- Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions: The book already covers the who, how, and what to work on.
- Impact: 0.
Item 6: Added “Why?” to Sprint Planning
- Scrum Guide: “Why?” was added to the sprint planning topics. So, there are now three: what, how, and why.
- Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions: The book already covers the “why” via the sprint goal during sprint planning.
- Impact: 0.
7. Unnecessary complexities
- Scrum Guide: Unnecessarily complex information was removed.
- Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions: The book was conscientiously built to be “a refreshingly clear and easy to follow guide.” Unnecessary complexities were never included, so they don’t need to be removed.
- Impact: 0.
The updates to the Scrum Guide are helpful. However, as delineated above, they have no impact on the award-winning book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions.
Hailed as “a must-have” and “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully” and “a superbly written and presented guide that is applicable across a broad range of businesses from consumer products to high-tech,” award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions by author Scott M. Graffius is a refreshingly clear and easy to follow guide based on typical successful implementations and best practices from a multitude of sources. The 2020 updates to the Scrum Guide have no impact on Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. Several updates to the Scrum Guide involved adding information that was already provided by Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions.
About Scott M. Graffius
Scott M. Graffius, PMP, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, CSM, CSPO, ITIL, LSSGB is an agile project management consultant, practitioner, award-winning author, and international speaker. Content from his books, speaking engagements, and more has been used by businesses, governments, and universities, including: Gartner, Oracle, Cisco, Ford, Qantas, Atlassian, Bayer, the National Academy of Sciences, the United States Department of Energy, the New Zealand Ministry of Education, Tufts University, Texas A&M, and others. Thinkers360 named Scott a Top 20 Global Thought Leader and Influencer on Agile. His full-length bio is available at: https://bit.ly/bio-smg.
Follow @scottgraffius
About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow step-by-step instructions, Scott M. Graffius's award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps the reader:
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The award-winning book by Scott M. Graffius is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle worldwide. Some links by country follow.
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